- Update : Word on the Intertubes is that University authorities have agreed to delay eviction: the dinner is going ahead.
For the last few months, the Student Housing Action Cooperative (SHAC) has been occupying a set of formerly disused terrace houses belonging to the University of Melbourne.
SHAC is a non-hierarchical collective of University students and their supporters, who want to provide affordable housing for homeless students. After liberating and then renovating and fireproofing the terrace houses, they have provided a dozen or so homeless students with free accommodation for several months. They are asking the University to allow them to stay so that they can provide ongoing accommodation for students according to a co-operative model.
(See STUCCO for an example of student co-operative housing at the University of Sydney.)
Today, Tuesday December 2, University officials pinned a letter of eviction to the door and have given SHAC until 5pm Wednesday to leave the premises — or they will be considered trespassers and forcibly evicted by police.
SHAC are calling for all of its supporters to come to a free dinner at SHAC from 5pm Wednesday and — if possible — to stay all night to resist this latest attempt by University authorities to create a few more homeless students.
SHAC is at 272-8 Faraday Street, Carlton.
University of Melbourne Vice Chancellor Glyn Davis enjoys a fat salary and free accommodation on campus.
